Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Osaka Castle

I haven't been blogging much for the past couple of weeks because these things things called tests got in the way. Yeh, annoying aren't they. Anyway, now I have broken up from school and I have two months left in Japan. There are so many things that I want to do and so many things which I have done, but not blogged about yet. So lets start with Osaka Castle.

I went to Osaka two weeks ago to see the sumo wrestling (!!!) On the way to the stadium we dropped into Osaka Castle. The first thing I feel I should point out, is that this isn't the original castle. In England when you visit a castle it is probably the original building, some are in good condition, others are more like few stone walls in the middle of a field.

However in Japan many castles were destroyed during the Meiji Revolution and therefore most castles are reproductions. Osaka Castle was repaired after the Meiji Revolution but then during a bombing raid in 1945, 90% of the building was destroyed. So it was restored again, to the way the original Edo era building used to look. It is a concrete reproduction which functions as a museum, there are even elevators inside!

Personally, no matter what kind of state it is in, I would rather visit a castle which isn't made of concrete but is the original building. However, the museum was interesting and you can't deny that it is a very beautiful castle.

These amazingly high walls are the originals, built in the 1620's.

This little boy decided he would try to squeeze between the massive stones.

The view from the top of the castle.

The plum tree garden.

The view from a nearby building of the castle surrounded by skyscrapers.

Wow - the plum tree garden looks like a lovely spot for a Spring picnic. Are you allowed on the grass? It looks like in your pic people are staying to the paths. Enjoy sakura season :)Claire xx | somewhere... beyond the sea